As of June 1st 2020, wearing face masks in public transport will be mandatory in the Netherlands. Travelers are desperately looking for a face mask to use, and the public is mentally preparing for the image of trains and buses full of people with face masks.

However, public transport organizations face a completely different challenge: monitoring and enforcing the use of face masks in trains, metros, trams, and buses. How are they going to do that? And how could technology help them? Let’s dive into it.

Enforcing face mask usage

In addition to checking for valid tickets, public transport organizations will have to check if people are wearing a face mask – and possibly remind them to do so when they are not.

An option could be to use personnel to monitor the usage of face masks, but this would require a lot of time and effort from personnel. Besides, the moment a staff member would notice someone not wearing a face mask, the ‘damage’ could basically already be done.

Therefore, an automated and more scalable solution to check for a face mask in advance is key.

Automated mask detection

So, what should such a solution look like? Of course, the solution should be able to detect the presence of a face mask. But, more importantly, it should be able to detect whether a face mask is worn, and if it is worn correctly.

In other words, the solution should not only be able to recognize a face mask, but should also be able to determine its position in relation to a person’s face. Additionally, it would be great if the solution could notify people when they are not wearing a face mask (correctly).

‘Kind of complicated…’, you might think, but while it might sound like rocket science, it surely isn’t!

Mask detection demo

At 20face, we have been working on a face mask detection solution lately. The result looks very promising, to say the least. Check a demonstration of the solution below:

The good thing is that this solution is completely privacy-proof: no user personal data is retrieved or stored as the system anonymously checks facemasks only.

We expect to be able to implement the solution shortly. Interested parties can contact 20face CCO Edwin Hek.